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This study aims to investigate dynamic relations among office property price indices of 10 major cities in China for the years 2005–2021.

Using monthly data, the authors adopt vector error correction modeling and the directed acyclic graph for the characterization of contemporaneous causality among the 10 indices.

The PC algorithm identifies the causal pattern, and the linear non-Gaussian acyclic model algorithm further determines the causal path from which we perform innovation accounting analysis. Sophisticated price dynamics are found in price adjustment processes following price shocks, which are generally dominated by the top tier of cities.

This suggests that policies on office property prices, in the long run, might need to be planned with particular attention paid to the top tier of cities.

This paper aims to examine the unique Chinese context by analyzing the city labels (e.g. smart city and eco city) used by Chinese local governments at or above the provincial capital level to represent themselves (adopted city labels) and the developmental pathways they actually pursued (adopted developmental pathways).

The authors compared the city brand choices to those anticipated based on their geographic and economic contexts (predicted city labels and developmental pathways) as well as the directives outlined in national planning documents (imposed city labels and developmental pathways). The authors identified ten main categories of city labels used to designate themselves and establish the frequency of their use based on municipal plan documents, economic and geographic data and national plan documents and policy reports, respectively.

The authors discovered that both local economic development and geographic factors, as well as top-down administrative influences, significantly impact city branding strategies in the 38 Chinese cities studied. When these models fall short in predicting adopted city labels and pathways, it is often because cities favor a service-oriented reputation over a manufacturing-focused one, and they prefer diverse, multifaceted industrial images to uniform ones.

The originality and value of this paper lie in its contribution to the academic literature on city branding by developing a predictive model for brand development at the municipal level, with explicit attention to the national-local nexus. The paper’s approach differs from existing research in the first cluster of city branding by not addressing issues of stakeholder involvement or adoption and implementation processes. Additionally, the paper’s focus on the political power dynamics at the national level and urban governance details at the municipal level provides a unique perspective on the topic. Overall, this paper provides a valuable contribution to the field of city branding by expanding the understanding of brand development and its impact on the socioeconomic environment.

Despite the recognition that contextual factors play a key role in shaping individuals’ work-family (WF) interface, empirical research that simultaneously considers individual, roles and contextual factors is scarce. Drawing on the pyramid model of work-home interface, we delve into the intersection among sex, gender role ideology (GRI) and urbanization (URB) in relation to WF conflict and enrichment in India. Specifically, we explored whether and how sex (male vs female), GRI (traditional vs egalitarian) and URB (big vs small city) interact to predict WF conflict and WF enrichment.

The data were collected from 586 full-time employees working in both more and less urbanized cities in India. Moderation analyses were utilized to study the interaction effects on WF conflict and enrichment.

Results indicate that GRI is a stronger driver of WF experiences, especially WF enrichment, for women regardless of location. The study contributes to the understanding of WF experiences in India and addresses the complexity of WF experiences, especially with respect to sex and gender.

Our study offers a nuanced understanding of WF experiences in India by integrating micro- to macro-level antecedents, thereby addressing the complexity of WF experiences. While a lot of research explains sex and gender differences in WF experiences, our study highlights how these experiences vary with the degree of URB.

The learning outcomes of this case study are to understand the business model canvas and value propositions and apply advanced business innovation tools in electric vehicle business models; evaluate the current cargo vehicle scenarios at national and global levels and draw out the possibilities and costs for a new player; extrapolate the future scenario of the cargo economy, its electrification and positioning in a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) segment, especially for a developing economy; and improve the student’s ability to get organisational buy-in and execute new business models.

LoadExx is a fully electrified electric cargo service focusing on logistics in Kolkata, a metropolitan city in the eastern part of the country. The service of LoadExx commenced in January 2021 in the B2B segment after overcoming its then issues of driver hesitancy and customer anxiety and financial issues to adopt electrified cargo systems. The conundrum faced by LoadExx in its commencement thus had been solved under the able guidance of its owner Amit Arora. The case study was positioned four months after the commencement of LoadExx. To gain market power and traction, Arora and his team came up with the idea of market expansion. However, the current conundrum was whether LoadExx would enter the B2C segment in its current location or expand with the same business model to other parts of the country. The expansion was to be implemented in the immediate future to retain its rarity and reduce the imitability of the business model of LoadExx. This case study details the logistics and market operations of the cargo sector, especially electric cargo, in a developing economy, especially India. A teaching note supplementing the “Cracking the conundrum of e-cargo logistics: curious case of LoadExx” case study has been provided.

This case study is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students and senior management professionals in executive education programmes undertaking courses in logistics management and supply chain operations and related cargo logistics courses. This case study denotes integrating key processes from end-users and gaining the trust of drivers, thereby showing the perspective of the plight and conundrums of a cargo aggregator working in the B2C segment. This case study could be used to discuss concepts related to not-for-profit firms, aggregators, policymakers and think tanks.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

This case study is designed to enable students to analyze the competitive landscape of a business impacted by technological disruption; evaluate the viability of an organic growth strategy using stakeholder analysis; evaluate the revenue and cost structure of Apollo 24/7 and decide on the future investment strategy; and analyze funding strategies of traditional hospitals versus pure digital players.

To extend its reach, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (Apollo Hospitals), a leading private sector brick-and-mortar hospital chain in India known for using state-of-the-art technology, launched a unified virtual mobile platform Apollo 24/7 in February 2020, 45 days into the COVID-19 pandemic. The management believed that the digital platform had a unique ecosystem that could not be replicated. The analysts were optimistic about the impact of the decision on the future performance of Apollo Hospitals, as it was expected to lead to higher penetration and increased revenue. They also anticipated the unlocking of value, as and when the venture capitalist (VC) would invest in Apollo Hospitals. However, with increasing operating expenses on account of burgeoning technological and marketing expenses, things did not seem to go going as planned. Three years later, in February 2022 after the Q3 of financial year 2023 results. Suneeta Reddy, the company’s managing director found herself pondering whether the digital platform could boost Apollo Hospitals’ profitability in addition to expanding its reach and increasing affordability when the company missed the analyst estimates. In India, which was then the second most populous country, “incremental access” and “affordability” were what mattered to the patients, However, for the investors and analysts, it was quarter-on-quarter performance. The change in the macroeconomic environment stalled the company’s plan of raising money from VCs.

Furthermore, the financing dilemma also plagued Reddy. She knew there was a difference between financing for conventional businesses that for digital businesses. She also had to take decide between short-term profitability with which investors were obsessed versus long-term sustainability, which involved taking care of stakeholders’ interests.

This case study is basically aimed at postgraduate courses and executive management courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS11: Strategy.

T Education is a leading educational science and technology enterprise in China with technology-driven, talent intimacy and quality leadership as the core development objectives. Since its inception, it has been committed to creating better learning experience for children. As the predecessor of T-education, X-education was founded in Beijing in 2003. At first, it mainly provided after-school math counseling for school-age children. Over the past 10 years, its business has been expanding, covering almost every aspect of school-age education. This case studies accounting issues and business ethics challenges that firms may face when they transform from a single (traditional education) line of business to a multiple channel business.

This case study covers marketing concepts, including marketing mix, segmentation, targeting and brand positioning and communication. After completion of the case study, the students will be able to understand the importance of segmentation and targeting; recognize the differences between business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customers (B2C) segments; gain knowledge about the points of parity and points of difference while positioning; and examine the elements of a marketing mix.

The case centered around Mr. Ashvinder Singh, founder and director of Uni Style Image (USI), who initiated the polo T-shirt business in 1990 in Okhla, Delhi. The brand expanded across the country, but from 2010, USI faced fluctuating demand due to the rise of online marketing and intense competition from global fashion brands. Revenues dropped massively, leading to a significant downsizing from over 300 employees to just 11 by the end of fiscal year 2016–2017. In 2018, Singh explored the B2B model; however, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 impacted many small- and mid-sized apparel businesses, including USI. In the fiscal year 2021–2022, the B2B segment accounted for 90% of total revenue, but the business size could not cover significant operating expenses. Despite only 10% of revenue coming from the B2C segment, Singh wanted to leverage the online space. In September 2022, Singh closed his factory in Noida, National Capital Region, Delhi. Amid the uncertainty, Singh explored various opportunities in the Indian market. In 2023, he even engaged a consultancy for expertise in marketing initiatives. He had to choose the target segment/s, develop a positioning strategy and create an effective marketing mix with very limited resources.

This case is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students, offering a valuable teaching tool for essential marketing concepts, such as the marketing mix, segmentation, positioning and brand communication. It can be used in both core marketing courses and elective courses like brand management, consumer behavior and integrated marketing communication. The decision dilemma presented in the case enriches the understanding of these concepts, making it a valuable resource for marketing education.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Milaap is a popular medical crowdfunding platform in India, enabling interaction between those who want to raise funds and those who want to donate. To achieve the critical mass Milaap had to increase the trust among the donors and ensure a higher success rate of the campaigns. Milaap provided two types of services: Do it Yourself (DIY), and Supported Campaign (SC). Milaap charged 5% of the raised amount from the DIY campaigns and 15% of the raised amount from the SC. Overall the chances of success were high in the SC. The case explores the dilemma of type of service to be prioritized.

Students pursuing different professional courses at the higher education level during 2021–2022 saw the first-time occurrence of a pandemic in the form of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and their mental health was affected. Many works are available in the literature to assess mental health severity. However, it is necessary to identify the affected students early for effective treatment.

Predictive analytics, a part of machine learning (ML), helps with early identification based on mental health severity levels to aid clinical psychologists. As a case study, engineering and medical course students were comparatively analysed in this work as they have rich course content and a stricter evaluation process than other streams. The methodology includes an online survey that obtains demographic details, academic qualifications, family details, etc. and anxiety and depression questions using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The responses acquired through social media networks are analysed using ML algorithms – support vector machines (SVMs) (robust handling of health information) and J48 decision tree (DT) (interpretability/comprehensibility). Also, random forest is used to identify the predictors for anxiety and depression.

The results show that the support vector classifier produces outperforming results with classification accuracy of 100%, 1.0 precision and 1.0 recall, followed by the J48 DT classifier with 96%. It was found that medical students are affected by anxiety and depression marginally more when compared with engineering students.

The entire work is dependent on the social media-displayed online questionnaire, and the participants were not met in person. This indicates that the response rate could not be evaluated appropriately. Due to the medical restrictions imposed by COVID-19, which remain in effect in 2022, this is the only method found to collect primary data from college students. Additionally, students self-selected themselves to participate in this survey, which raises the possibility of selection bias.

The responses acquired through social media networks are analysed using ML algorithms. This will be a big support for understanding the mental issues of the students due to COVID-19 and can taking appropriate actions to rectify them. This will improve the quality of the learning process in higher education in Oman.

Furthermore, this study aims to provide recommendations for mental health screening as a regular practice in educational institutions to identify undetected students.

Comparing the mental health issues of two professional course students is the novelty of this work. This is needed because both studies require practical learning, long hours of work, etc.

This paper investigates the interactional relationships between sustainable human resource management (SHRM) and organizational performance (OP). Sustainable HRM is an approach that links HRM and sustainability. These studies focused on integrating HR with sustainable developments, such as economic and social aspects, in favour of focusing on the environmental aspect. Organizational change is an ongoing process that has to be managed effectively to keep the change in place for a long time.

A framework was offered to estimate the cause-and-effect relation of the SHRM and OP factors. Data is gathered from professionals from various pharmaceutical industries. This study applied two methods, Fuzzy AHP and DEMATEL Type II. These techniques are used to understand the cause-and-effect factors and their interactions.

It was observed from the findings that the factor of SHRM, such as Social Justice (F2), Green Job Design (F5), Green Training (F6) and Implementation of Green Policy (F8), was the most critical for the pharmaceutical sector that effects Financial performance (F13), Customer Satisfaction (F15) and Market performance (F14). Pharmaceutical firms ought to coordinate public health advocacy efforts, engage in healthcare initiatives and provide financial support for environmentally friendly efforts that improve social and economic conditions.

For this sustainability, managers concentrate on creating an environment that is healthy and acceptable, and they work hard to mitigate the impact of natural factors and repair damage done to the environment; it is essential to move towards sustainable development to resolve environmental problems. Improving HR efficiency is among essential HRM responsibilities, as they expand the knowledge base of the workforce, enhance human capital, and eventually create valuable intangible assets and promote and encourage sustainable pharmaceutical products for some years.

This research paper has presented exclusive worth to the SHRM and organizational performance literature as it employs fuzzy FAHP and DEMATEL type 2. There is less research on SHRM in the pharmaceutical sector with these factors. In addition, FAHP and TYPE 2 DEMATEL are used in very few researches on SHRM approaches.